**LAMUEL** (Hebrew _Lēmâ'el_ and _Lēmô'el_; Septuagint: ὑπὸ _Néos_ = _Lēmô'el_). — King of Massa (cf. Greek, Targum, Syriac, according to the most common reading). The Masoretic punctuation reads: “king. Prophecy, etc.” (cf. Vulgate). Massa lies between the Jordan and the Arabian desert; inhabited by Ishmaelites (Gen. 25:14; 1 Chron. 1:30); colonized from the time of Hezekiah by Israelites of the tribe of Simeon (1 Chron. 4:41–42). In Prov. 31:1–9 are preserved the counsels addressed to L. by his mother the queen.
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BIBL.:** L. Bigot, _Proverbes,_ in DThC. XIII, cols. 911 sq.; J. Marie, _Proverbes,_ in DB. V, cols. 786 sq.; A. Vaccari, _De libris didacticis,_ 2nd ed., Rome 1935, p. 51; H. Renard, _Le livre des Proverbes_ (La Sainte Bible, ed. L. Pirot, 6), Paris 1946, pp. 33, 183 sq. Francesco Spadafora